A conceptual model for manufacturing performance improvement

Purpose: Important performance objectives manufacturers sought can be achieved through adopting the appropriate manufacturing practices. This paper presents a conceptual model proposing relationship between advanced quality practices, perceived manufacturing difficulties and manufacturing performances. Design/methodology/approach: A survey-based approach was adopted to test the hypotheses proposed in this study. The selection of research instruments for inclusion in this survey was based on literature review, the pilot case studies and relevant industrial experience of the author. A sample of 1000 manufacturers across Australia was randomly selected. Quality managers were requested to complete the questionnaire, as the task of dealing with the quality and reliability issues is a quality manager’s major responsibility. Findings: Evidence indicates that product quality and reliability is the main competitive factor for manufacturers. Design and manufacturing capability and on time delivery came second. Price is considered as the least important factor for the Australian manufacturers. Results show that collectively the advanced quality practices proposed in this study neutralize the difficulties manufacturers face and contribute to the most performance objectives of the manufacturers. The companies who have put more emphasize on the advanced quality practices have less problem in manufacturing and better performance in most manufacturing performance indices. The results validate the proposed conceptual model and lend credence to hypothesis that proposed relationship between quality practices, manufacturing difficulties and manufacturing performances. Practical implications: The model shown in this paper provides a simple yet highly effective approach to achieving significant improvements in product quality and manufacturing performance. This study introduces a relationship based ‘proactive’ quality management approach and provides great potential for managers and engineers to adopt the model in a wide range of manufacturing organisations. Originality/value: Traditional ways of checking product quality are different types of testing, inspection and screening out bad products after manufacturing them. In today’s manufacturing where product life cycle is very short, it is necessary to focus on not to manufacturing them first rather than screening out the bad ones. This study introduces, for the first time, the idea of relationship based advanced quality practices (AQP) and suggests AQPs will enable manufacturers to develop reliable products and minimize the manufacturing anomalies. This paper explores some of the attributes of AQP capable of reducing manufacturing difficulties and improving manufacturing performances. The proposed conceptual model contributes to the existing knowledge base of quality practices and subsequently provides impetus and guidance towards increasing manufacturing performance.

Occupational driver safety : conceptualising a leadership-based intervention to improve safe driving performance

Occupational driving crashes are the most common cause of death and injury in the workplace. The physical and psychological outcomes following injury are also very costly to organizations. Thus, safe driving poses a managerial challenge. Some research has attempted to address this issue through modifying discrete and often simple target behaviors (e.g., driver training programs). However, current intervention approaches in the occupational driving field generally do not consider the role of organizational factors in workplace safety. This study adopts the A-B-C framework to identify the contingencies associated with an effective exchange of safety information within the occupational driving context. Utilizing a sample of occupational drivers and their supervisors, this multi-level study examines the contingencies associated with the exchange of safety information within the supervisor-driver relationship. Safety values are identified as an antecedent of the safety information exchange, and the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship and safe driving performance is identified as the behavioral consequences. We also examine the function of role overload as a factor influencing the relationship between safety values and the safety information exchange. Hierarchical Linear Modelling found that role overload moderated the relationship between supervisors’ perceptions of the value given to safety and the safety information exchange. A significant relationship was also found between the safety information exchange and the subsequent quality of the leader-member exchange relationship. Finally, the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship was found to be significantly associated with safe driving performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

An experimental and computational investigation of performance of Green Gully for reusing stormwater

A new stormwater quality improvement device (SQID) called ‘Green Gully’ has been designed and developed in this study with an aim to re-using stormwater for irrigating plants and trees. The main purpose of the Green Gully is to collect road runoff/stormwater, make it suitable for irrigation and provide an automated network system for watering roadside plants and irrigational areas. This paper presents the design and development of Green Gully along with experimental and computational investigations of the performance of Green Gully. Performance (in the form of efficiency, i.e. the percentage of water flow through the gully grate) was experimentally determined using a gully model in the laboratory first, then a three dimensional numerical model was developed and simulated to predict the efficiency of Green Gully as a function of flow rate. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT was used for the simulation. GAMBIT was used for geometry creation and mesh generation. Experimental and simulation results are discussed and compared in this paper. The predicted efficiency was compared with the laboratory measured efficiency. It was found that the simulated results are in good agreement with the experimental results.

The influence of glass types on the performance of air-conditioned office buildings in Australia

Windows are one of the most significant elements in the design of buildings. Whether there are small punched openings in the facade or a completely glazed curtain wall, windows are usually a dominant feature of the building's exterior appearance. From the energy use perspective, windows may also be regarded as thermal holes for a building. Therefore, window design and selection must take both aesthetics and serviceability into consideration. In this paper, using building computer simulation techniques, the effects of glass types on the thermal and energy performance of a sample air-conditioned office building in Australia are studied. It is found that a glass type with lower shading coefficient will have a lower building cooling load and total energy use. Through the comparison of results between current and future weather scenarios, it is identified that the pattern found from the current weather scenario would also exist in the future weather scenario, although the scale of change would become smaller. The possible implication of glazing selection in face of global warming is also examined. It is found that compared with its influence on building thermal performance, its influence on the building energy use is relatively small or insignificant.